Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	earth_n	power_n	8,852	5	5.0914	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82320	The stumbling-stone, or, A discourse touching that offence which the world and worldly church do take against 1. Christ himself. 2. His true word. 3. His true worship. 4. His true church. 5. His true government. 6. His true ministry. Wherein the University is reproved by the Word of God. Delivered partly to the University-congregation in Cambridge, partly to another in the same town. Together with a brief touch in the epistle (for the present) on the late quarrelsom, weak, and erroneous Animadversions of one Mr. Chambers, called Doctor in Divinity, and Pastor of Pewsy in Wiltshire. By William Dell minister of the Gospel, and Master of Gonvil and Cains Colledge in Cambridge.	Dell, William, d. 1664.	1653 (1653)	Wing D930; Thomason E692_1; ESTC R206987	41,191	48

Testamento non sunt praecepta urgentia sed tantum exhortationes obsecrationes Nec Christus nec Apostoli quenquam unquam coegerunt Spiritus fanctus vocatur in hoc Spiritus Paracletus ut exhortetur Luth. 2. Responso ad libr. Amber Cathar 2. Because an Equality in his Kingdom violence and compulsion though he have all Power in Heaven and in Earth But in the day of his Power that is of the Gospel he only entertains the willing People and compells no body against their wills seeing he seeks not his own profit but ours Our Lord Jesus Christ gathers his true Church on Earth according to the Councel and Mind of his Father in Heaven and so will entertain none but whom his Father draws because he will have his Church not one jot larger then the Election of Grace 2. They are offended at his Government in that in his true Church he makes an equality between all Christians through Faith and will have none over one another but will have all to serve one another in Love And so he will have him that would be the greatest to be the least of all and him that would be the chief to be the servant of all as Himself came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransome for many And He was greater then all the children of God not through any worldly Greatness Lordliness or Dominion but through his teaching and instructing them and loving them and serving them and suffering and dying for them And besides this Greatness there is nothing but Equality in his Church 3. They are offended at his Government in that Christ doth 3. Because he doth all by his Word and Spirit only nothing in his Church by the Decrees or Constitutions of Ecclesiastical men or by the secular Arm and Power of the Magistrate but he doth all by his Word and Spirit and nothing else And these alone without the addition of any thing else are infinitely sufficient to do all that Christ would have done in his Kingdom 4. Because he will have us only to avoid hereticks and not to harm them 4. In that he will have Vs to love our Enemies and to do good to them that do evil to Vs and to pray for them that persecute Vs and despitefully use Vs He will not have us to be Enemies to any or to do evil to any or to persecute and use despite to any He will have us to beware of false Prophets but not to destroy them And to avoid Hereticks but not to kill them And will have neither of them burnt with any fire but the fire of * Igne Charitatis comburendi sunt haeretici quicunque impiè sapiunt docent Luth. Tom. 2. 5. Will have al done by the Law of Love only In Novo Testamento ostenduntur omnia quae facienda omittendaque sunt sed nemo cogitur omnibus permittitur ut vel pereant vel salvi fiant Luth. Respon ad Ambros Cathar 6 At his true Ministry This Ministry made only by the Unction of the Spirit Love 5. In that He will have all things in his Kingdom ordered and done only by the Law of Love and nothing by any Law of Violence or Compulsion Now this kind of Government of the true Church doth grievously offend the World and worldly Church and the Governors of both because They know no Government of the Church at all but that of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power intermingled and if this be made void they can do nothing at all in the Government of the Church but think according to their unbelife all things presently will come to Confusion For they want Faith to commit the Government of Christs own Church to his own care by his Word and Spirit And thus they are offended at this true Government also 6. And Lastly for I will name no more particulars at this time They are offended at Christs true Ministry Because Christ under the New Testament hath erected and constituted a New Ministry not through any Ecclesiastical Ordination but meeerly through the Vnction of his Spirit without any Regard at all to a mans outward calling or condition in the World but whether as I said before a man be a Schollar or Clergy man or Gentleman or Tradesman if Christ call him and pour forth his Spirit on him that and that only makes him a true Minister of the New Testament And of this New and Offensive Ministry to the World and worldly Church Christ himself was the first For he was not of Christ himself the first of the New Testament Ministers the tribe of Levi as the Apostle saith Heb. 7. but of the tribe of Judah of which Moses speaks nothing touching Priesthood how then did Christ become the first and chief Minister of the New Testament The Spirit of Christ tells us by Isaiah chap. 61. and Christ himse tells us Luke 4. saying The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath annointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted c. So that our Lord Iesus Christ being according to the Dialect of Antichrist a Lay-man and having never learned Lettters nor been brought up a Scholar but being brought up with Joseph in the trade of a Carpenter and not ordained neitheir by the Church of the Jews nor allowed by them was yet the first and chief Minister of the New Testament through the Vnction of the Spirit only Now the worldly Church were extreamly offended at this very thing as you may see in the Gospel Mat. 13. ver 54. 55. Iesus came into his own country and taught them in the Synagogue insomuch that they were astonished for no man spake like him for he taught with Authority and not as the Scribes but they said whence hath this man this Mechanick man this wisdom and these mighty works is not this the Carpenters Son Is not his mother called Mary And are not his brethren and Sisters all with us and they were offended in him that such a man that had no Degrees nor Ordination should yet be a Minister And as Christ himself was the first Minister of this sort so he chose others in the same manner He chose Fishermen and Tent-makers He chose others like himself and Publicans plain men and of ordinary imployment in the world and only put his Spirit on them and this was their sufficient Vnction to the Ministry And thus it was foretold by Ioel chap. 2. ver 28. And it shall come to pass in the last dayes saith the Lord that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesie There needs nothing to the Ministry of the New Testament but only Gods pouring out his Spirit Wherefore Christ bids his Disciples stay at Jerusalem till they should receive the promise of the Spirit and then they should go forth and Teach And so

sin also that is like to undo and ruine the Vniversity and to race it down to the very ground even your horrible The University admonished Envy Enmity and Opposition to the truth of the Gospel When Christs word or the Truth as it is in Iesus is hated opposed derided and scoffed at in your Colledges in your Schools in your Meetings yea sometimes in your Pulpits this sin will dash you in pieces that you shall find none to recover you This sin will engage against you the Son of the living God and when his wrath is kindled against you not a little but to the very utmost for so great wickedness shall then your * Certum est Aristotelem mortuum damnatum esse Doctorem hodie omnium Vniversitatum magis quàm Christum Luth. Respons ad Libr. Ambros Cathar Masters Plato Aristotle Pythagoras c. wretched Heathens who with all their wisdom knew not Christ but are dead and damned many hundred years ago be able to deliver you Or shall Thomas and Scotus and other Schoolmen with their cold vain and Antichristian Divinity help you Or shall the Secular Arm and worldly Power whom you have seduced for many Ages be able to shelter you in such an hour No certainly but if you continue in your bitter Emnity against the true and spiritual Word and Gospel of Christ Christ lives and reignes to bring you down wonderfully and to make your Name a shame and a Curse to the whole true Church of God And this poor contemptible Doctrine of the Gospel which you hear to day and it may be most of you despise and esteem of no more then a straw for strength this very Word shall prevail against you and triumph over you And the poor People of God that small handfull of believers that are amongst you whom you despise in your hearts and reckon but as the filth and off-scouring of the place even they shall see your downfall and shall say Thou art righteous O Lord who hast judged thus and shall say again Even so Lord God almighty true and righteous are thy Iudgements And this now have I spoken in faithfulness to Iesus Christ and The Conclusion to the University in faithfulness to his true Church and in faithfulness also to the Vniversity that they might hear and avoid that Ruine with will otherwise inevitably befall them for their offence at Christ and his Gospel And now let them that can receive it receive it and let them that cannot deride and reject it But whether you receive it or whether you reject it sure I am I have spoken the Truth which God himself in his due time will witness to and so much also for this Point The fourth Point is 4. Generall The blessedness of them that-are not offended at Christ according The Blessedness of those who are not offended to Christs word here Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me Now those very few that are not offended at Christ and his things when the whole World and worldly Church are offended their Blessedness appears in many particulars 1. As first in that its evident that they all are taught of God 1. Such are taught of God and have heard and learned from the Father himself touching the Son And they that see Christ by the Revelation of the Father are not at all offended at him when all other men are For such do clearly see Christs Power in his weakness his Glory in his Reproach his Exaltation in his Abasement his Divine nature in his Humane they see his Sufferings were for our sins his stripes to heal Us his Death to deliver us from death and all this they know not only by the Letter of the Word but also by the Revelation of the Father in their hearts and so they cannot be offended at Christ who see him thus Wherefore when the World and worldly Church had many several Opinions of Christ and Peter notwithstanding acknowledged him to be the Son of the living God Christ replied blessed art thou Simon for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father which is in Heaven and this is thy blessedness that thou knowest me by the Revelation of the Father and so knowest me aright and art not offended He then that is not offended at Christ when all other men are hath for certain the Fathers Teaching and sees Christ far otherwise then the World and worldly Church do He sees Christ in all his Mysterie and in all his Glory and when we see him thus we value him never the worse for the form of a Servant nor for all his reproaches and sufferings from the World but we rather behold these things with the greater wonder and comfort seeing for our sakes he humbled himself from the form of God to the form of a servant and in that form to the death of the Cross 2. They are blessed because through this Revelation of the Father they have true Faith in Christ wrought in them For true 2. Through this Revelation have true Faith Faith in Christ doth necessarily follow the Fathers Revelation and when God teaches us Christ we must needs believe in him and through this Faith we know him by Experience and he that knows Christ through the Experience of Faith finds and feels Christ to be all that to him which the Scripture speaks of him He through this faith feels Christ to be made unto him of God VVisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and all things and Christ being through Faith made all that to him which he is in Himself it is not possible he should be offended at him Farther through this Experience of Faith Christ becomes precious to him as Peter saith 1 Pet. 2. 7. to you who believe he is precious That very Christ which to others is a Stone of stumbling and a rock of offence is precious to them who have Faith and know him by Experience So precious that they esteem all the greatest and most excellent things in the world but dross and dung in comparison of Him and such believers have chosen to part with their Liberty their Estates their Relations and their own Lives all which are precious things in themselves rather then they would part with this infinitely more precious Christ 3. They are blessed in that through this faith they have establishment as Christ saith on this rock I will build my Church And he 3. Through this faith have establishment that hath Christ for his only Foundation is never offended at him what ever scandals the World and the Devil raise up against him But he that hath another Foundation then Christ to wit either his own works and Righteousness or the World and the Things of the World when scandals come they are presently offended and their offence against Christ declares they are not built on him But they whom nothing can offend they are surely built and established on Christ and in

helped them And this is the chief and indeed the only true VVorship of the New-Testament For the Gospel hath taught us that Christ is the trueTemple wherein the Church of the New-Testament which is a Kingdom of Priests are all alike to Worship God without any difference or distinction of persons And also that Christ is our Rest aswell as our Righteousness and it is as great a sin to make another Rest then Christ as it is to make another Righteousness then Christ For in him alone we are compleat and furnished to all things that appertain to the Kingdom of God And stand in need of nothing out of him Wherefore it is said Heb. 4. 3. He which hath believed is entred into the rest that is into Christ and his Righteousness and so hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Now the World and worldly Church are greatly offended at this And because this Spiritual worship makes no great shew Spiritual Worship And that first because it makes no great shew nor presents no glorious outside to the World to win their favour and applause and so they despise it as a Notional or Melancholick thing And secondly because this is wholly out of the reach and Power of the Natural man and no man by his free will or Natural abilities And also is out of the reach of the Natural man can attain thereunto VVherefore they are offended at this kind of VVorship and would have a Worship in the dayes of the Gospel after the manner of the VVorship of the Law a Worship standing in outward works and Duties and Ceremonies and in Observation of Dayes Times Places Persons And are much scandalized at that Worship which stands only in Faith and Love and makes void all other things 4. They are offended at the true Church of Christ 4. At the true Church of Christ Because Christ under the New Testament hath set upon a New-Church which is not outward and visible as the Church of the Old Testament was Neither carries in it any worldly Pompe Power and Glory as the Church of Antichrist doth but it is wholly spiritual and invisible and as utterly unknown to the World as Christ himself The true Church under the New-Law is the Congregation of spiritual men gathered together not in one outward place but in What the true Church is one Faith Hope and Love in one Spirit in one Christ in one God It is the company of the faithful and elect which have Christ for their Head And this Church is not known by any outward Orders or Forms It is known only by the Word of faith or Ceremonies or manner of life but only by the Word of Faith seeing this true spiritual Church is conceived and formed is brought forth and brought up is fed and clothed is strengthned and adorned is protected and perfected by this word of faith alone Yea the whole Nature and life and being and action of this Church is in the word of faith 2. They are offended at this Church because it is the habitation of God and his very Kingdom wherein he himself is present is manifested 2. Because this Church is the Habitation of God speaks works reignes is glorified and is all in all in it And so it will not receive unto it self any thing of the Power Wisdom and Righteousness of Man They are much offended to hear that this Church is the Temple of the living God and that God hath said it himself that he will dwell in them and walk in them And that God is in them of a Truth and not by fancied habits of created grace And that they are filled with all the fulness of God And that they are living Stones in that Building wherein Christ himself is the chief corner Stone and that they are all built together by the Spirit to be the Habitation of God This doth so exceedingly offend them that is causeth them to Blasphem in crying out against this Doctrine of the Spirit of God as Blasphemy 3. They are offended at this New Church of the New Testament 3. Because it wil be the true Church alone because it will be the Church of God alone and will not acknowledge any to be of it but such as are born of God and have obtained like pretious faith with them And so will have no constant communion with any how skilful soever in the letter of the word and how eminent so ever in outward formes of Religion but only with such who have true fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit 4. They are offended at this Church because usually God calls unto it not the Great and Honourable and Wise and Learned but 4. Because it consists of mean people mean plain and simple people according to that of Paul 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen Yea things that are not to bring to nought things that are So that this true Church consists of a smal company of Poor Mean Simple Base and despised men in the eyes of the World and worldly Church Yea of such who in their judgement deserve to have no place nor being in the World And who now out of their own choice would willingly joyn themselves to such a Congregation 5. The great and worldly wise people are much offended at this 5. Because of its outward afflicted condition Church because of its outward afflicted condition in the World it having fellowship with Christ in all his sufferings And so is alwayes Reproached Despised Slandered Torn Sp●t on Buffeted Crucified and Mocked And from all most or some of these sufferings the spiritual Church is never priviledged in the World And by reason of these things the visage of the true Church seems foul deformed and offensive in the eys of men whilst the national and carnal Church is highly favoured esteemed and preferred it self and hath its chief Teachers honoured with Scarlet and Furrs So that if Christ were on the earth again in his mean and plain condition He would be ashamed to own Them and They would be as much 5. At the true Government of the Church 1. Because Christ will force none but perswade all ashamed to own Him And thus much for their offence at the true Church 5. They are offended at the true Government of this Church Because Christ under the New Testament as he hath set up a New Church so also he hath set up a New Government of this Church and this also offends in many regards 1. In that Christ will have none brought to his Church by outward * In toto Novo